SP Singh Baghel, BL Verma: Two prominent OBC faces from Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: SP Singh Baghel and BL Verma who made it to the Union council of ministers on Wednesday are two prominent OBC leaders from Uttar Pradesh.

A five-time MP, Satya Pal Singh Baghel currently represents Agra in the Lok Sabha as a BJP MP.

A party-hopper, 61-year-old Baghel was a member of the Lok Sabha in 1998, 1999 and 2004 as a Samajwadi Party MP, representing the Jalesar seat in Uttar Pradesh.

After three terms as an MP, Baghel was suspended from the SP.

He then unsuccessfully contested two Lok Sabha elections as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate.

In 2014, Baghel was elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BSP nominee.

Baghel became president of the BJP OBC Morcha in 2015 and two years later he became a BJP MLA from Tundla before getting elected to the Lok Sabha again, this time on a BJP ticket from Agra.

This is his first stint as a central minister.

A member of the Rajya Sabha, 59-year-old B L Verma is an OBC leader who started off as an active party worker from Budaun in Uttar Pradesh.

He became UP BJP vice-president in 2018 and as a member of the upper house of Parliament, he is in the Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

A first-time Union minister, Verma was earlier president of the Braj region unit of the saffron party.

A prominent leader among the OBC communities, especially the Lodhi community in western UP, he is considered close to former chief minister Kalyan Singh.

At present, Verma holds the post of the chairman of UP State Construction and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, enjoying the rank and status of a minister of state.